“Bride Wars” (D): This cliched comedy tosses out stereotypes about female materialism

“Bride Wars” (D): This cliched comedy tosses out stereotypes about female materialism and cattiness with all the giddy gusto of a newly married woman flinging the bouquet at her single girlfriends. Director Gary Winick squanders the appealing screen presence of Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway. Hudson and Hathaway star as Liv and Emma, best friends who’ve obsessively fantasized about the ideal wedding since childhood. When Liv and Emma both get engaged, they accidentally book their weddings at New York’s Plaza Hotel on the same day. Neither will budge, which leads to an increasingly destructive game of sabotage and one-upmanship.90 mins. PG for suggestive content, language and some rude behavior.

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (A): The special effects are so dazzling, and Brad Pitt’s performance is so gracefully convincing, that you can’t help but be repeatedly wowed. Director David Fincher has always proven himself a virtuoso visual stylist — to the point of seeming like a shameless showoff at times — with films like “Fight Club,” “Panic Room” and “Zodiac.” But here, he’s truly outdone himself: He’s made a grand, old-fashioned epic that takes mind-boggling advantage of the most modern moviemaking technology. Fincher’s film, based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story about a man who ages in reverse, is rambling and gorgeous — perhaps a bit overlong and gooey in the midsection — but still, one that leaves you with a lingering wistfulness. 167 mins. Rated PG-13 for brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking.

“Defiance” (C): The real-life story of brothers who lead their fellow Jews into the forest of Belarus during summer 1941 to fight Nazis and form their own community offers a glimpse into a facet of the Holocaust we might not have known about before. But director Edward Zwick’s movie never finds a way to grab you emotionally, despite typically strong performances from Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber. It’s as if Zwick was more concerned with making sure we know the movie is about Something Important — which should be obvious based on the subject matter alone — rather than taking any narrative or aesthetic risks or delving into the complexity of the characters. 137 mins. Rated R for violence and language.

“Doubt” (C+): For a film about moral ambiguity, “Doubt” does an awful lot of hand-holding. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character, a charismatic, mavericky Catholic priest, is obviously a good guy, even though he’s suspected of sexually abusing the school’s only black male student. Meryl Streep, as the principal at St. Nicholas in the Bronx, is obviously the villain for her unflappable certitude and fearsome authoritarianism. None of the above is ever in question as writer-director John Patrick Shanley brings his Pulitzer Prize-winning play to the screen. Shanley, whose only previous directing effort was 1990’s “Joe Versus the Volcano,” lacks the ability as a filmmaker to wring much nuance out of his own material in cinametic form. 104 mins. Rated PG-13 for thematic material.

“Frost/Nixon” (A): Frank Langella is positively formidable as Richard Nixon, a skilled manipulator under optimal circumstances whose desperate desire to rehabilitate himself through these talks makes him extra dangerous. Langella isn’t doing a dead-on impression. Rather, he seems to have internalized a volatile combination of inferiority, awkwardness, quick wit and a hunger for power. He loses himself in the role with rumbles and growls, with a hunched-over carriage and the slightest lift of the eyebrows. 122 mins. Rated R for some language. 122 min.

“Gran Torino” (B): Considering that Clint Eastwood grumbles and growls his way through his most entertaining performance in years as Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran and lifelong auto worker who’s disgusted with the changes in his blue-collar, suburban Detroit neighborhood. Eastwood combines both the tough and playful sides of his personality — in front of and behind the camera as star and director — with “Gran Torino,” which begins in broadly entertaining fashion but ultimately reveals that it has weightier matters on its mind. 116 mins. R for language throughout, and some violence.

“Hotel for Dogs” (C-): The premise would seem to be foolproof: It’s about a hotel ... for dogs! How cute is that? How much fun would that be? Say no more. Unfortunately, that’s all “Hotel for Dogs” is: a clever concept that quickly runs out of room to roam. Kids might be entertained by the canine antics, and certainly the film’s ideas about the importance of loyalty and family are worthwhile for little ones to ponder. But even serious dog lovers among adults in the audience will be severely bored. 100 mins. Rated PG for brief mild thematic elements, language and some crude humor.

“Inkheart” (C): Director Iain Softley crams in more literary characters and mystical creatures than would seem humanly possible in this over-cluttered and uncharming film. The mythology here, taken from the best-selling novel by Cornelia Funke, is mind-bogglingly dense and, often, illogical. Brendan Fraser brings his typically stoic demeanor to the role of Mortimer “Mo” Folchart, a bookbinder who’s been trolling secondhand stores for years looking for the medieval adventure “Inkheart” in hopes of righting a wrong. You see, Mo has an unfortunate gift: When he reads a book out loud, its characters literally come to life in the real world. 106 mins. Rated PG for fantasy adventure action, some scary moments and brief language.

“Last Chance Harvey” (C): It’s nice to see filmmakers occasionally spin a story of fresh romance for the aging set. Yet it’s hugely disappointing when actors with the craft and chemistry of Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson are cast into a love story as sappy and shallow as any other in Hollywood. Hoffman stars in the title role, a failed musician who meets up with London lonelyheart Thompson while attending his daughter’s wedding. 92 mins. Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

“Marley & Me” (C): Aww, look at that cute, fluffy puppy in those “Marley & Me” ads. It almost makes you think you’re in for a feel-good comedy about a rambunctious yellow Lab and the family who loves him no matter what chaos he causes. Well, “Marley & Me” is all that, but if you’ve read the best-selling memoir by John Grogan that inspired the movie, you also know that it has more than its share of hanky moments. But while it’s effective in its ability to evoke emotion, it’s not a particularly good movie. 123 mins. Rated PG for thematic material, some suggestive content and language.

“Milk” (A): Director Gus Van Sant presents the last eight years in the life of Harvey Milk, the slain San Francisco politician and gay rights activist, with a mix of vivid details and nuanced heart. He’s also drawn from Sean Penn one of the most glorious performances ever in the actor’s long and varied career. Penn depicts Milk as a man defined by a charming persistence. He had a way with words and a love of the spotlight and an infinite sense of inclusiveness. He was, in short, a jumble of contradictions, all of which Penn captures gracefully and effortlessly128 mins. Rated R for language, some sexual content and brief violence.

“New in Town” (C): This soggy fish-out-of-water slog, starring Renee Zellweger as Lucy, a Miami executive forced to move to tiny New Ulm, Minn., which is chock full of stereotypically folksy folks. The generic title alone should indicate how utterly bereft of creativity “New in Town” truly is. Lucy, who’s climbing the ladder at a snack food corporation, is assigned to one of its factories in the frigid north with the ultimate task of shutting it down. Before she takes a single step in the ice in one of her myriad pairs of stiletto heels, you know how this is going to turn out. 96 mins. Rated PG for language and some suggestive material.

“Notorious” (B): You love to hear the story, again and again: Young boy trapped in poverty, chooses crime over the classroom, rises to infamous heights only to be gunned down at the apex of success. But this biography of the rapper Notorious B.I.G. transcends gangster-flick clich s because of the outsized talents of the artist and the actor who portrays him. B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls, was an artist of unique skill and charisma — all of which is captured in a pitch-perfect, and at times, even moving performance by the obscure rapper Jamal “Gravy” Woolard. 120 mins. Rated R for profane language, graphic sex, drugs and violence.

“Paul Blart: Mall Cop” (D): The biggest crime of all here is not the bank heist that goes down at a New Jersey mall on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. Rather, it’s the egregious way in which Kevin James’ innate likability goes to waste. James’ Paul Blart is a portly pushover who tries hard to be the tough guy as a shopping center security guard. Paul gets his chance to prove himself when a bunch of skateboarding, bike-riding, X-Games refugees infiltrate the mall with plans to rob the bank, taking a few hostages in the process. 87 mins. Rated PG for some violence, mild crude and suggestive humor, and language.

“The Reader” (A): As in director Stephen Daldry and screenwriter David Hare’s last pairing, 2002’s “The Hours,” “The Reader” has the flawless production values and sheen of prestige that make it easy to admire, and yet an emotional detachment that makes it difficult to embrace fully. Thankfully, Kate Winslet bares not just her body but her soul with a performance that pierces the genteel polish of this high-minded awards-season drama. As the central figure in this adaptation of Bernhard Schlink’s 1995 novel, Winslet is in the nearly impossible position of trying to make us feel sympathy for a former Nazi concentration camp guard — but, being an actress of great range and depth, she very nearly pulls off that feat completely. 123 mins. Rated R for some scenes of sexuality and nudity.

“Revolutionary Road” (B): Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet tear each other apart more thoroughly than an iceberg ever could in this brutal depiction of marital malaise. Director Sam Mendes covered this territory before with more verve and imagination in his 1999 debut “American Beauty,” and similar to that film, “Revolutionary Road” carries with it the unmistakable, unwarranted aura of importance, of having Something to Say about the way we live.119 mins. Rated R for language and some sexual content/nudity.

“Seven Pounds” (C): This is a clever one, all right, but it might actually be too clever for its own good. Will Smith stars as the mysterious Ben Thomas, an IRS agent who drops in on random Los Angeles residents with financial trouble and analyzes whether they’re good or bad. If they’re good, they get the gift of his infinite generosity: a break on their debts, a little extra time to get their affairs in order, and perhaps something even more life-altering if he deems them especially fit. Gabriele Muccino and writer Grant Nieporte jump all over in time, trying to keep us on our toes. 118 mins. Rated PG-13 for thematic material, some disturbing content and a scene of sensuality.

“Slumdog Millionaire” (A): Despite the exotic nature of its foreign locale — the teeming, cramped, impoverished streets of Mumbai, India — this is every inch a Danny Boyle film. The hope within the squalor, the humor within the violence, they’re all thematic trademarks of the British director of the druggie drama “Trainspotting” and the zombie saga “28 Days Later.” The unassuming Dev Patel stars as our slumdog underdog, Jamal, an 18-year-old who comes from nothing but is on the verge of winning more money than anyone’s ever won before on the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” 120 mins. Rated R for some violence, disturbing images and language.

“Taken” (B): A great deal of the allure here comes from the wild juxtaposition of its premise: the idea of Liam Neeson — esteemed, acclaimed, 56-year-old Liam Neeson — kicking all kinds of butt in a Euro B-revenge thriller. Cast someone you’ve never heard of in the lead role — someone who didn’t receive an Oscar nomination for playing Oskar Schindler, for example — and it might not have worked so well. Neeson seems to be having a blast unleashing chaos as former CIA operative Bryan Mills. 91 mins. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language.

“The Tale of Despereaux” (C): Even though Kate DiCamillo’s book “The Tale of Despereaux” came out in 2003, the animated film version still feels like a rip-off of “Ratatouille,” which was released only last year. That’s partly because of the premise: It’s a food-laden fairy tale about a rodent (voiced by Matthew Broderick) who must overcome his underdog status to save the day. But the bigger problem is its lack of comparative charm. Whereas the gorgeous, sophisticated “Ratatouille” was both a crowd-pleaser and a critical favorite, duly winning the Academy Award for best animated feature, “Despereaux” feels obvious, preachy and heavy-handed. 93 mins. Rated G.

“The Unborn” (C): The Kabbalah. Hot college students. A creepy, abandoned mental institution. Gary Oldman. Jogging. Twins. Nazi scientists. A suicidal mother. A lost blue mitten. What do these things have in common? They’re all pieces in the convoluted mythology of “The Unborn.” Best as one can tell, writer-director David S. Goyer’s film is a sort of Jewish version of “The Exorcist,” which is a vaguely novel concept. 95 mins. PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images, thematic material and language including some sexual references.